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Josephine Caminos Oria, who owns La Dorita Cooks in Sharpsburg with her husband, Gaston, is out with a new memoir that pairs each chapter with a beloved family recipe.
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Sharpsburg author's book celebrates the food traditions of Argentina

Jonathan Boncek

Sharpsburg author's book celebrates the food traditions of Argentina

Americans tend to jump up from their chairs the second a meal is finished. But in Josephine Caminos Oria’s native Argentina, dinner guests linger at the table after they eat, discussing everything and anything, sometimes for hours. 

As she writes in her new coming-of-age memoir "Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses” (Scribe Publishing, $20.74), the mandatory, post-meal conversations and storytelling were how she learned to make sense of growing up as a first-generation Argentine-American. Nothing, not even politics, she says, is off limits. “You really want to talk about life.” (Sobremesa translates literally as "above the table" but it means so much more in Argentine culture.)

Born 35 miles south of Buenos Aires in La Plata but raised in Pittsburgh, she grew up straddling two cultures that often didn’t mesh. No matter where she woke up each morning, though, she always ate like the Argentines, faithfully adhering to the sobremesa tradition. 

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As she writes in the book’s forward, the unhurried family meals — many cooked by her beloved maternal grandmother, Dorita — “left me with an edible memory that connects me to my past and now, 20 years later, continues to guide me on a culinary journey that, like ancestors past, seemingly showed up out of nowhere.”

Josephine Caminos Oria of O'Hara spreads dulce de leche over crostata dough.
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From Argentina with love: Dulce de leche

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and friends and family couldn’t gather, she and her husband, Gaston, with whom she started the La Dorita Cooks all-natural line of dulce de leche in 2013, felt it acutely.

The studio in Sharpsburg that they use for Argentinian cooking classes, private team-building and small weddings ceased activity, and their Share Incubator Program, which houses operations for 25 other start-up and early-stage food producers, also experienced setbacks because all on-site food service to the public shut down.  

“Everything was so expensive, and the margins changed,” Ms. Oria, of Sharpsburg, recalls. “We had to think, how do we move forward?”

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She was able to keep the business going by working as a real estate broker in her brother’s hometown of Charleston, S.C. But she never stopped thinking about the food she grew up eating and how the home-cooked meals provided emotional nourishment along with nutrition. 

A second attempt

She’d tried writing about sobremesa three years ago, following the publication of her first book, “Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories and Sweet Traditions” (Burgess Lea Press, $25). But she couldn’t get the story right and ended up throwing all 300 pages away.

Then COVID-19 happened and, like so many who found themselves at home, “I didn’t know what to do,” she says. So she took another crack at it with Gaston’s help.

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Four weeks later, they not only had a book but also managed to sell it. It was released in May.

Written in three parts, the book — told through food and cooking — follows Ms. Oria’s journey back to Argentina as a young adult and her love affair with the man who would become her husband.

It also touches on her return to Miami and then Pittsburgh, where she worked in public relations for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust before eventually becoming chief financial officer for Med Health Services while also raising five children.

There are heartbreaks along with moments of joy, but all are key in Ms. Oria’s journey of self-discovery.

Her mother, Beatriz, is a main character, along with Dorita. The mysterious man in a herringbone cap with a closely trimmed silver beard who she comes to call her Gentleman Caller also makes several appearances, adding a touch of magical realism. You won’t know why until the very end.

Although it’s not technically a cookbook, each of its 13 chapters opens with an heirloom recipe and closes with the sobremesa it inspired. They include the humble mushroom sandwich her mother made her whenever she needed cheering up and the ricotta dumplings she prepared as a girl with her abuela.

Of course there is a recipe for raisin- and olive-stuffed empanadas, a food Ms. Oria considers Argentina’s “culinary ambassadors.” It’s the dish her future in-laws welcomed her into their family with.

If that makes you hungry, you’re in luck.  Many of those favorites will be served at a pop-up Argentinian dinner she and the women of Farmer x Baker will hold at Aspinwall  Riverfront Park on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., which also happens to be Argentina’s Independence Day. 

In addition to four different kinds of empanadas ($13-$15 for 3, with kale salad), the pop-up will feature tortilla espanola ($11), choripan with kale salad and chips ($10), hearts of palm salad with pickled eggplant bruschetta ($11) and two desserts: crepes with her famed dulce de leche, berries and whipped cream or a slice of rustic blueberry crostata (both $7).

Signed copies of her memoir ($23) will also be available.

Why a memoir?

While her La Dorita spreads have a devoted following, Ms. Oria acknowledges she is far from famous. That may make some wonder why she wrote a memoir.

Her answer is that she hopes to inspire people who also have experienced love along with loss — especially women, who are often expected to put their life on hold for others — along with the challenges of being bi-cultural.  

She also wants to remind people that it’s never too late to chase your dream; she didn’t start La Dorita Cooks until her 40s. “It’s what you can do with life, and not that life happens to you.” 

She calls the fact  “Sobremesa” made its debut during the pandemic “so incredible.”  Because, she asks, “Aren’t we all dying to get behind the table and connect with people? It nourishes us and we’re in dire need of nourishment.”

Food, she adds, is both a witness to our lives and a way to preserve and share family legacies. It also can be a portal.

“Once our bellies are full, it opens you up, breaks down the walls and can take you places,” she says.

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter/Instagram @gtmckay

Mom’s Mushroom Sandwich

PG tested

“To this day, I still eat a mushroom sandwich when I need a hug from my mom.” says Josephine Oria about this humble dish, one of 14 family recipes featured in her new memoir, “Sobremesa.” Made with white sandwich bread and white mushrooms, it’s best eaten “in pajamas or old sweats, in bed or in a comfy chair in front of the TV while watching a Hallmark or Lifetime movie or two, back to back.” 

3 tablespoons salted butter

12-ounce package white or cremini mushrooms, sliced

½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Pinch of fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 slices white sandwich bread

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and thyme. Saute for 5 to 7 minutes or until they’re fully coated with butter and start to crackle and pop.

Add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, making sure not to burn garlic. Once mushrooms take on a golden-brown color but are still nicely soft and juicy, remove from pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately between 2 slices of white sandwich bread.

— “Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses” by Josephine Caminos Oria (Scribe, May 2021, $24.95)

Tortilla Espanola (Potato and Egg Frittata)

6 cups canola oil, preheated

4 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes

3 large Spanish onions, cut into ½-inch cubes

12 large eggs

3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

Smoked paprika for garnish, optional

Carefully place potatoes into pre-heated canola oil and fry until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to soak up any excessive oil.

Carefully place onions in the same oil and cook until translucent, about 15 minutes. Remove onion with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to soak up any excessive oil.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper. 

Pour olive oil into a large, 12-inch, ovenproof nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid and heat over medium-low heat, swirling to coat the pan. 

Meanwhile, mix in the slightly cooled potatoes and onion to the egg mixture and pour evenly into the skillet. Shake and swirl the pan the first few minutes to keep the tortilla in motion so that it cooks evenly. Cook, covered, for approximately 20 minutes, until the bottom half and outer edge of the tortilla are set and the egg on the top is no longer runny but still fluid.

Remove lid from skillet and transfer the skillet to the oven, placing it on the top shelf to brown the top of the tortilla for 5 to 10 minutes. Leave it a little longer if you want a more fully cooked center or less if you want it runny.

Run a spatula around the edge to loosen the tortilla. Carefully flip the tortilla out onto a serving plate. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and smoked paprika, if using.

Serves 7.

— “Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses” by Josephine Caminos Oria (Scribe, May 2021, $24.95)

First Published: July 8, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: July 8, 2021, 10:36 a.m.

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Josephine Caminos Oria, who owns La Dorita Cooks in Sharpsburg with her husband, Gaston, is out with a new memoir that pairs each chapter with a beloved family recipe.  (Jonathan Boncek)
Josephine Caminos Oria's new memoir, "Sobremesa," is a multigenerational story of a daughter's love and familial culinary legacy.  (Scribe Publishing)
The potato-and-egg frittata known as tortilla espanola makes an excellent breakfast, lunch or dinner and can be served hot, cold or in small cubes as an hors d'oeuvre.  (Courtesy of Jonathan Boncek)
The potato-and-egg frittata known as tortilla espanola makes an excellent breakfast, lunch or dinner, and can be served hot, cold or in small cubes as an hors d'oeuvre.  (Courtesy of Jonathan Boncek)
Josephine Oria's mushroom sandwich, served on white sandwich bread, is comfort food at its best. "It tastes of home, hangovers or both," she writes in her new memoir, "Sobremesa."  (Gretchen McKay/Post-Gazette)
Josephine Oria's mushroom sandwich, served one white sandwich bread, is comfort food at its best. "It tastes of home, hangovers or both," she writes in her new memoir, "Sombremesa."  (Gretchen McKay/Post-Gazette)
Jonathan Boncek
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